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Post office for sale!

Here we are with the world teetering on the edge of economic depression and having to spend trillions sorting out the mess caused by banks and what does the Labour government come up with - the part privatisation of the Royal Mail! It just demonstrates how market thinking has captured the very soul of the Labour Party, even at a time when the free market is causing havoc they still cannot see any alternative to privatisation. One wonders just what it will take for Labour to kick their free market addiction.

But this might be just one privatisation too far, people are increasingly repulsed by the greed and inequality created by market forces and they are in no mood to support the privatisation of the Royal Mail. Even politicians are waking up to this fact. A recent report from a select committee chaired by Tory MP Peter Luff positively savages Labour plans for the Royal Mail.. The report challenges Labour’s plans to separate the Post Office from Royal Mail Group. It queries why the much needed cash injection has to come from a sell-off and argues that neither the Hooper report into the Royal Mail nor the government has made a real case for privatisation.

When select committees start to oppose privatisation it is a sure sign that Labour is in trouble. But the danger is that union leaders will launch one of their pathetic, costly campaigns, aimed at winning over the general public and Labour MPs. You can almost hear them explaining just how many MPs are opposing privatisation. But Labour MPs bitterly oppose things right up to the eve of the vote in Parliament, when suddenly they change their minds and accept the first shoddy compromise put forward and use it as an excuse to vote with the government.

There is no need for expensive campaigns to convince the public - they are already opposed to the sell off. What is needed now is action as the means of galvanising popular discontent against the government. The last years has witnessed a sea change in people’s thinking, they are sick and disgusted with all things free market, a strike against the sell off will focus all that popular anger and not only frighten this government to death, but also the future Tory government. This is a victory there for the taking, postal workers should use their collective strength to force a total and humiliating climb down by this shower of a government.